Herbalist Alexander Hickman of Yah’ki Awakened: “Having a Diverse Team Promotes a Culture and… (2024)

Having a diverse executive team (or team in general) promotes a culture and environment that encourages you to think outside of the box, challenges you, and pushes the business forward to achieve its highest potential. I owe my success to having a strong team comprised of individuals who possess various skillsets, thoughts and backgrounds that differ from my own. Thinking outside of the box and thinking differently, which at its core, is what alternative medicine and holistic healing is about, and is essentially how Yah’ki Awakened was established.

I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Certified Master Herbalist, Yah’ki, also known as Alexander Hickman, who is the Founder of a black-owned holistic health and wellness company Yah’ki Awakened.

Yah’ki is a Master Herbalist, Holistic Teacher, Crystal Healer, Detoxification Specialist, Reiki Healer, Motivational Speaker, and community activist. He is best known for his extensive knowledge in herbology, podcast, lectures, seminars, and ability to use diet and Geogenetic Therapy to reverse an innumerable amount of so-called irreversible diseases. His main goal is to promote unity, love, peace, self-awareness, to all but especially to Africans globally. Yah’ki Awakened is a black-owned holistic health and wellness company focusing on cellular regeneration, DNA repair, and intracellular detoxification using a high energetic diet, powerful alkaline botanicals, and natural herbs.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

What brought me to this career — and ultimately this life-changing path — as a Master Herbalist and Natural Healer was my desire to live.

I didn’t grow up in the most positive environment and was headed down the wrong path. I eventually became involved in gang-activity while also pursuing a rap career and engaging in heavy drug and alcohol use. Additionally, I was extremely unhealthy. I was obese, had high blood pressure, diabetes, scar tissue on my heart, and my kidneys were failing. One day, after participating in my usual co*cktail of recreational drugs, including cocaine, I suffered a mini heart attack. Being in the hospital for a mini heart attack at such a young age scared me straight. If I wanted to continue to live, I had to change. After being released from the hospital the same day, I went home and immediately threw away all of the drugs in my house. I started researching diets and while on YouTube came across a video featuring Dr. Sebi, an herbalist healer, who inspired me to change how I was eating to help heal my body and improve my health the natural way. I was hooked and started studying herbology and creating my own blends. I switched to a plant-based, alkaline diet, and began to see and feels results in not just in my health, but mentally and spiritually.

Soon people from my community started to notice the changes in me and began asking for holistic wellness advice, diet recommendations and herbal blends for their own ailments. It was then that I realized my purpose and that I could inspire others — especially little Black boys who look like me — and help change lives.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Along my personal journey of wellness and creating my own holistic health and wellness business and brand, there have been many interesting stories and experiences.

I’ve been able to use my expertise to truly help people discover their own wellness journeys and yield results they didn’t think were possible. I was working with a woman who had half of her thyroid surgically removed due to goiters. She was receiving radioactive medicines and radiation pills that were causing side effects, including hair loss. When she came to me, she was looking for relief from the side effects and a natural/alternative remedy. First, we explored changing her eating habits and I put her on an all-fruit diet. Then we utilized an herbal therapeutic approach, to help cleanse the body’s systems, remove calcification and mucus, eliminate parasites and revitalize cells. She continued on this herbology program for a year and as a result regrew her thyroid. It was completely functioning and there was no longer a need for her to have synthetic hormone therapy.

At that moment, I realized that herbs and the right food can promote cellular regeneration and that if you put the body in the right environment, it can thrive.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

They say reading is fundamental and I would add, so is math. Starting out I didn’t have the best understanding of measurements such as grams, milligrams, etc. A client, who was a truck driver, came to me for a natural remedy for stomach and constipation issues he was experiencing. I recommended that he take the natural herb, Cascara Sagrada in capsule form — 4,000 milligrams, three times a day. While it’s not toxic or poisonous, the dosage recommended was too high, resulting in him having to make several restroom stops along his route. Another key lesson: know your audience. I didn’t take into consideration his profession as someone who makes a living on the road. Throughout his experience, I talked to him every day to ensure he was ok, which resulted in us developing a friendship. Today, he is actually one of my best friends and obviously now as an experienced certified Master Herbalist, I haven’t made that mistake again.

On the business side, and on a more serious note, I would also recommend that you ensure that your credit is impeccable before starting a business. By doing so, you can utilize your credit instead of your own money, which could result in you running out of capital. Early on, I made this mistake and had to correct it by paying off my personal debt and then getting business credit cards. Business credit cards offer more perks and reach than personal credit. Also, if you get a business account, use it for business only and not for personal expenses.

Can you share three reasons with our readers about why it’s really important for a business to have a diverse executive team?

Having a diverse executive team (or team in general) promotes a culture and environment that encourages you to think outside of the box, challenges you, and pushes the business forward to achieve its highest potential. I owe my success to having a strong team comprised of individuals who possess various skillsets, thoughts and backgrounds that differ from my own. Thinking outside of the box and thinking differently, which at its core, is what alternative medicine and holistic healing is about, and is essentially how Yah’ki Awakened was established.

Additionally, incorporating a diverse group of team members with different thoughts, skillsets and perspectives collectively allows for success. It’s also integral to the operations of any company.

Lastly, diversity can provide you as a leader, with a different outlook. It can offer unique solutions to challenges you didn’t think of (or simply weren’t aware of) based on your team’s varied experiences, cultures and realities — and that’s a great thing.

More broadly can you describe how this can have an effect on our culture?

Can you recommend three things the community/society/the industry can do help address the root of the diversity issues in executive leadership?

I recommend systemically rethinking how we address ethnicity on job applications or consider removing it all together to solely focus on an applicant’s qualifications, skillset and potential. Recruiters and hiring managers should remove all personal biases/stereotypes they may have to focus on what will be best for the business, instead of the ethnicity of a candidate.

Additionally, I often hear certain industries say they just can’t find qualified talent who are Black/African American, for example. To start to address this, let’s invest more in our schools to create programs that can train and educate students in these areas of high demand, diversifying program offerings to demographics that are underrepresented in these industries. Also, for businesses looking to hire more diverse talent, consider partnering with a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to fund new programs, tap into their alumni network and create a pipeline of potential candidates to fill future jobs in your sector.

Most importantly though, to ensure fairness and diversity takes personal responsibility. When you engage with a person of a different ethnicity/cultural background, take time to learn about them personally as well as their culture in a positive way instead of relying on stereotypes or making assumptions. See what that person has to offer to your company — and the world — because everyone has something to offer, otherwise, we wouldn’t exist.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

Leadership is any individual that can advance the interest of his/her people and secure the future survival of people in a business and culture. In a business sense, a leader is someone who can organize and create systems to ensure that the business is successful, profitable, and creates value for its employees and customers.

A leader can see that a business is doing well, but also recognize that it could perform even better if certain systems and guidelines are set and followed correctly. They can see opportunities to advance the interest of that business, even if it’s already doing well. Leaders know how to put people in certain positions based on their skillset and what is going to be best for the business. For example, if someone is not savvy in customer service, a leader would know to put that person on the operations side rather than in a position where they are consumer-facing. Or if a leader recognizes that a person who is on the production side has knack for people or is an excellent communicator, he will consider training them up to move into sales or into a more customer-facing position. Essentially, a leader knows how to organize, tap into the unique talents of their team and create systems to make the business efficient and better than it was before.

For example, Yah’ki Awakened began as a home-based business. We were working out of the basem*nt of our house, all running around like chickens without heads because of the volume of orders. We were growing quickly and had thousands of orders to fulfil. Yet we were still operating like a small shop. It was then that we had to take a step back and look at the challenges of running the business out of a house. The first thing that we needed was a bigger space. Once we had more space, we were able to segment the business into proper divisions. With so many new divisions, we had to hire more people with specific skillsets to run the operations of those units. Once we found those people, we implemented systems and operating procedures to eventually make the business run on its own. I stepped into that leadership role and took the necessary steps to get Yah’ki Awakened to where it is now, which is doing $4.2 million in business per year. When we were operating out of our basem*nt, we had the orders, but we were only doing $1.3 million per year. It took only one year to make this jump to $4.2 million in revenue by recognizing our challenges and solving those problems. Simply by identifying our pain points, creating effective solutions and hiring the right people, we set ourselves up for success, while growing the business.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

One thing I wish I knew before starting my business, was to be responsible with your profits and gains. Cashflow management is the meat and bones of a business. As a business owner, invest a percentage of your profit back into your business. In my case, I was selling a significant amount of products and making a massive profit, but I was not investing that profit back into my business and ruined my cashflow. Instead of investing more profit in my business, I was investing it into my personal desires and lifestyle. When it came time to stock up on inventory, I fell short because I wasn’t putting a percentage back into the business. I had to create a budget and justify my expenses, instead of simply pocketing a majority of my profit.

Another thing I learned, relating back to that experience, is to always put the customer first. Going back to what I said earlier, I was pocketing more of the profit rather than putting it back into the business. My focus should have been on making the company better to continue to improve customer satisfaction. After all, that’s why I created this company, because I wanted to help others have access to holistic healing methods.

Additionally, I wish I knew sooner the importance of how to properly register your business (ex: sole proprietor, LLC, etc.). I recommend getting a lawyer to help you register your business and guide you in the right direction, especially when you’re starting your first business. I wouldn’t want people to make the same mistake I did, researching on my own without any knowledge on how to register. This resulted in me paying thousands of dollars in taxes because my business was registered incorrectly. If I would have had a lawyer to begin with, I would have paid much less. A lawyer to helped me get back on track and register my business the right way.

I also wish someone would have advised me to find commercial space outside of my home to run my business. Of course, all businesses start out small and you have to work your way up to be able to afford to lease or buy a space. But your employees will not be as productive or efficient if they are not provided the proper environment necessary to work and thrive. When Yah’ki Awakened skyrocketed and we were accumulating thousands of orders, we were all losing our minds trying to fulfill them from that small basem*nt space. It was no longer feasible. Looking back, we operated out of that space longer than we should have. So, I would advise that once you have the budget, find an affordable office space. Ensuring your employees well-being and comfort by providing them with the right work environment to thrive is equally as important as making your customers happy.

Lastly, I wish someone would have told me to find a trusted mentor to help guide me through the entrepreneurial process. A mentor doesn’t have to be a billionaire who owns hundreds of businesses, but rather someone who is intelligent, trustworthy, and generally knows the ropes of owning and operating a business. Figuring everything out on my own wasn’t an easy path. Though it was extremely rewarding doing it all myself, I made a lot of mistakes to get to where I am today. It would have been beneficial to have someone to talk to and get guidance from when I was struggling to start my business. Find that person who will have your back and you can turn to during your toughest business challenges.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My favorite “Life Lesson Quote” is by John Henrik Clarke, an African American historian. He said, “If you start your history with slavery, then everything else will look like progress.” It made me go back and research African Americans before slavery. I realized that we are the decedents of kings and queens who owned gold, resources, and entire countries. It inspired me and made raise my standards as an individual. Knowing that our history existed prior to slavery, inspired me to be more successful and work harder.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I’d love to have a private conversation with the most influential rappers or black celebrities in the world, whoever that may be Drake, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, or anyone else in that category. They all have the power to influence millions of African Americans in the community. If we could push for them to have more of a healthy lifestyle, that would change the consciousness of the community.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

· Instagram: @yahkiawakened

· YouTube: Yahki Awakened

· Facebook: @YahkiEl

This was very meaningful, thank you so much!